In the field of telecommunications systems with time-division multiplexing, the present invention relates to meshed networks formed by nodes and designed to exchange information signals by means of lines connecting these nodes to one another. The invention relates more specifically to a method for the reconfiguration of a meshed network. It may be recalled that the reconfiguration of a meshed network is the technique wherein, when a meshed network is partially defective and when, consequently, the signals are no longer being sent out accurately, the routing of the signals is modified to ensure that they are sent, as far as possible, to every non-defective node of the network for which they are intended.
With a network limited to a loop formed by alternating nodes and lines, there are known ways of having lines formed by a primary link and a secondary link and of isolating the defective parts by the interconnection of the primary link and the secondary link of each of the lines closest to the defective parts of the loop. The sending of the signals which, before the appearance of the defect or defects, is done by using the primary links alone, is then done along a path that uses the primary links in one direction and the secondary links in the opposite direction. This technique, which has been called the technique of reconfiguration by negative feedback loop, has the drawback wherein, once there is more than one defect, the network gets split up into as many mutually independent networks as there are distinct defects.
There is also a known way of using a network wherein the lines are permanently bidirectional and wherein the number of lines that can reach a node is not limited. The reconfiguration in this case, if for example a given node is out of order, consists in making the information signals, which would have gone through the given node in normal operation, go through the nodes surrounding the given node. The result thereof is an overload of the nodes surrounding the given node, and this overload may lead to the saturation and even to the failure of the nodes concerned.